Just days after kakapo were released onto New Zealand’s mainland for the first time in 40 years, New Zealand’s most vulnerable taonga species has benefited from a new tool: artificial intelligence, in its fight for survival.
New software developed by the Christchurch nonprofit Cacophony Project uses AI to scrutinize hours of video captured by cameras mounted in bushes.
“Someone doesn’t have to sit there for hours watching all the recordings before figuring out that there were seven possums and three stoats in the area last night. The AI will do that,” said project director Matthew Heriker.
Not only can AI software analyze the footage to find out what triggered the camera in the first place, but it can also combine all the results into one simple report with quantifiable data.
Scenarios in which the animal cannot be clearly identified warn of the need for human verification.
Hurriker said it’s particularly good at weeding out “false positives,” where things like gusts of wind or falling leaves can trigger the camera.
“So humans don’t have to waste time looking at images that are basically just grass moving a little bit,” he says.
“This is about making ourselves more useful and making better use of the talent we have.”
And the Department of Conservation agreed, and the project won part of DOC’s latest funding round, worth $1.8 million across five projects.
Clayson Howell, landscape threat science manager at the DOC, said he can’t yet quantify how much time and manpower this new tool will save, but “I’m pretty confident that with a better tool, we can do a lot more of the same thing.”
He said DOC is “always looking to iteratively improve the tools we have, while always being open to new tools and different ways of working that are more efficient and effective.”
“Predator Free 2050 is still a long way off, and we believe investing in these technologies now will help us get there iteratively.”
This AI software is now paired with Cacophony Project’s thermal cameras already in use in the bush around Christchurch.
The aim is to develop software that allows all of DOC’s existing trail cameras to perform the same task of analyzing footage and providing a breakdown of the raw data.
“That means you can report and understand what’s in the bush in one place,” says Heriker.
“There is one platform where you can see everything from thermal cameras, and you can see everything from trail cameras. [and] It saves a lot of effort for people trying to monitor what’s actually in the bush. ”
They are also working on a second DOC-funded project in terms of improving the hardware in the first place.
Cacophony is already working on prototype thermal cameras that are lighter, perform better, have longer battery life, and require fewer trips to change batteries and SD cards.
“We already have a prototype now, and it shows that it uses about half the electricity, and I think we know how to reduce it even further,” Heriker said.
It should also reduce the cost of thermal cameras by nearly a third from about $3000.
They hope that this will give more organizations access to the new tool, including local predator eradication groups and privately funded conservation groups.
“Our Cacophony project’s goal is to put this technology into the hands of volunteers and everyone working to solve the predator-free problem across New Zealand,” he said.
DOC has received 33 applications for the Tools to Market funding round after inviting registrations of interest in January 2022. Since 2017, DOC has funded 13 projects including new lures, toxins, traps and predator detection devices.
Other tools being funded alongside the Cacophony project include new long-lived lures for rodents, possums and mustelids, and a bait drop system using drones and unmanned aerial vehicles.
